Idaho AG Raúl Labrador sues to stop open primaries initiative, teeing up legal fight

Raul Labrador addresses members of the Idaho Republican Party in this 2019 file photo.

A coalition aiming to end the Idaho Republican Party’s closed primary system and implement ranked choice voting faces another hurdle for its November ballot initiative: a lawsuit from Attorney General Raúl Labrador.

Labrador petitioned the Idaho Supreme Court on Wednesday to throw out the measure that earlier this month secured enough signatures to qualify for the Nov. 5 general election. The attorney general argued the Idahoans for Open Primaries initiative violates the state constitution by addressing more than one subject, and that volunteers deceptively collected signatures from voters by not explaining the full effect of the measure.

Organizers, who collected nearly 75,000 verified signatures in recent months from voters, have long expected a challenge from Labrador, a Republican, who has been clear since its proposal that he opposes the initiative.

Luke Mayville, a lead organizer of the initiative effort, told the Idaho Statesman by phone that the lawsuit is a “political stunt” he expects will be dismissed quickly, and is an “insult to the thousands of ordinary people who volunteered their time to collect signatures.”

The measure would abolish the closed primary system, which Republicans have used for more than a decade, and replace it with a primary open to all voters that would determine the top-four candidates among all parties moving on to the general election. In the general election, voters would then be allowed to rank their favored candidates in order of preference.

Labrador’s two-pronged challenge aims to stop the measure before it goes to voters. The lawsuit names as a defendant Secretary of State Phil McGrane, the state’s top election official who administers elections and is currently preparing a pamphlet with pro and con arguments about the initiative that is scheduled to be sent to voters before the election. McGrane’s office declined to comment Wednesday.

“We feel that the Supreme Court will look at this very seriously,” Labrador told reporters Wednesday. “And we’re hoping that they agree with the Office of Attorney General.”

Mayville said Labrador was trying to “interfere in the election and deny voters a voice.”

“There’s nothing unconstitutional about giving all voters the right to participate in primary elections,” he previously told the Statesman.

Organizers: GOP wants to keep ‘power’ over citizens

The initiative has been loudly opposed by some of the state’s most conservative politicians, including Dorothy Moon, who chairs the Idaho Republican Party. Organizers of the measure have said their opposition is an effort to cling to power.

Mayville previously told the Statesman that “powerful party insiders and special interest groups” oppose the measure “because they know that it will give power to ordinary voters to choose their own leaders.”

Other prominent Republicans and former state leaders, like former Gov. Butch Otter, have rallied behind the measure, arguing that it would give a wider spectrum of Idahoans a say in choosing their leaders and select more candidates who have broad appeal. Current officials like McGrane and Gov. Brad Little have so far refrained from taking public positions on the measure.

McGrane wrote in a letter this month that implementing the measure, if it succeeds, could cost $25 million or more because of the expense of new voting tabulation systems, according to several news reports.

The Idaho Supreme Court last year forced Labrador to rewrite the measure’s ballot titles — which the attorney general is responsible for crafting — because justices concluded it was likely to prejudice voters against it, according to previous Statesman reporting.

‘Deceptive practices,’ AG Raul Labrador says

In his lawsuit, Labrador argued the initiative’s organizers have deliberately focused on the open primary aspect of their measure in their communications with the public, while deemphasizing ranked choice voting.

“They have continuously used deceptive practices in gathering signatures,” Labrador said Wednesday.

The measure’s organizers called it the “The Open Primaries Initiative.” On its website, under a “Get the Facts” page, the group explains the effect the measure would have on closed primaries and on ranked choice voting in general elections. The website also has a link to the secretary of state’s 18-page document about the initiative, which explains what it would do and details the relevant laws it would change.

Mayville said volunteers for the initiative discussed “every aspect of the initiative” with voters, and that the cover sheets of their petitions contained its full ballot title.

Labrador also argued the measure violates the single-subject rule of the Idaho Constitution, which requires laws to stay focused on a single topic. Labrador said the changes to primary elections and general elections were two different alterations. Organizers of the measure have argued they encompass the same fundamental concept: how voters select their leaders in elections.

“I think it’s time for the Supreme Court to make a definitive ruling on our single subject jurisprudence,” Labrador said.